Mortal Kombat
by TD Master
Summary: Angel finale aftermath.


Title:

Mortal Kombat

Author:

3D Master

Feedback:

3d.masterchello.nl

Website:

http:members.chello.nl/jg.temolder1/

Rating:

R-rated, violence.

Keywords:

Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, humor, action. (Warning: character deaths and resurrections!!)

Summery:

Angel finale aftermath.

Disclaimer:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and its characters do not belong to me, but to Fox and Mutant Enemy Productions.

Mortal Kombat

by 3D Master (3d.masterchello.nl)

website: http:members.chello.nl/jg.temolder1/

Author's notes:

I just _/had/_ to write this. I haven't watched S5 of Angel, because I knew it'd be horrible, and I was right - I kept up on events. Read stuff of the finale, knew how bad it was, but I got visions of this little story. So, I especially had to watch the finale to get the details right (I wish I could gauge out my eyes then put them back in after cleaning them). Enjoy.

A door in the back of the room opened and a muscular young red-skinned demon stepped in. He snorted and then walked over to the two corpses lying on his rug. He looked from the old red-skinned demon with a splattered head to the human. "Foolish mortal," he said with disdain.

"Really?" the corpse spoke, and the demon took a step back in reflex as the man opened his eyes. "Personally I thought that was a performance worthy of an Oscar." A small light swirled around his seeming mortal wound, and it was gone. "You didn't really think I didn't know you used a telepathic puppet to fool everyone - apart from Wolf, Ram, and Hart themselves I take it?"

The demon looked more startled for a moment, and then he laughed heartily, "Faking your death, only to die a more gruesome one, Mr. Price?"

Wesley got up off the floor, and said, "Nah, you were actually right." Wesley pointed his index finger forward, indicating behind the demon, "She's the one who knew, and I think you made her angry with that comment about this fight not being for mortals."

The demon gave a laugh, and started, "You think I'd fall for that. I'm always aware about any presence, in front or back of . . ." He stopped talking, his eyes wide, a moment later there was a swirl of light behind him. He twisted around in an instant, and his eyes widened further with terror as he said, "No! Not you!" Then he screamed out in unimaginable pain, as his feet caught fire. Within ten seconds the fire raced up his body, and extinguished, leaving nothing but a small amount of ash on the floor to indicate he had even existed.

"Remind me never to piss you off," Wesley told the black-eyed girl, who smiled serenely at him.

-----

"Could you be anymore specific?" Spike asked, after Angel suggested they fight. He looked at the army of demons coming through the alley at them as rain splashed down heavily. The chicken wire fence behind the good guys kept one of them from going anywhere, not that his wound would allow him to go far even if there was _/no/_ fence.

"Well, personally, I'd like to slay the dragon," Angel said with a smile as he readied to fight.

"Give me the big one with the hooves," Illyria added. "I think its head will look good on a wall."

The army of demons stopped their advance at the hand sign that came from the big one as tall as a small apartment building, and it laughed. "Look at you, we'll squash you like bugs. You're barely less pathetic than mortals."

There was an explosion that startled everyone, and a moment later the demon army got showered in the blood and gore that once belonged to the dragon. The heavy sound of a helicopter could be heard once the explosion died out.

"That may be, bub . . ." a loud voice rang out, and the demon swivelled his head, looking astonished at a man, a bunch of girls, and a group of men and women in army fatigues standing on the roof of the building next to him. On the other side of the ally on another roof, another squadron of girls and soldiers arrived. The man who had called out was dressed in a dark brown, leather duster. He had dark shoulder-length raven hair. His right eye was brown, his left was clear blue. ". . . but that won't stop us mortals from kicking your ass." The man turned around and regarded his girlfriends, "I've always wanted to say that." The girls, especially the African ones, grinned. Then the man put the cigar stub he was holding in his mouth, and tried to take a drag, but the rain had already put it out. "Damn, this never happens in the comics," he cursed and threw the stub down the building as the military squad aimed several deadly looking rocket launchers at the bigger demons. The stub bounced off the huge demon's shoulders, who instantly became extremely angry at the disrespectful action.

"Who the hell is that?" Gunn asked weakly, as Spike and Angel looked at each other with a dawning frown.

"No way," Angel muttered even as the demon started talking with great anger. Behind the fence, doors on either side of the alley opened, and more girls filed out. They grabbed the fence and tore it apart, much to the astonishment of the Angel Team. Especially when they recognized a blonde.

"Buffy?" Spike muttered.

While this was going on, the demon said enraged, "You don't think a few little explosives are going to kill me, do you?"

"Nope," the man answered and then grinned evilly. "But then they're not little. A brand new concoction that's . . . classified, but you're gonna love it." The man went over what he said in a split second, then added, "Well, you're gonna be dead, but you know what I mean. LET 'EM RIP, GUYS!!"

"I suggest you get down," Buffy told the Angel Team, and then she and the other Slayers quickly laid down on the ground.

"Bloody hell," Spike said as he recognized a tank driving at the end of the alley, its barrel pointing at them. The vampires and Gunn ducked down, and then pulled Illyria along when she looked surprised at the contraption.

Five rockets from either building, with silver balls on the fronts, shot from the soldiers holding the rocket launchers. The big demon had nowhere to go in the narrow alley, and some of the rockets hit him. The rockets that didn't, impacted on the other bigger demons. There was a massive explosion, the shockwave flying over the downed good guys, and then there was silence. It didn't last long. The booms of the tanks followed - there was one on the other side of the alley as well. Simultaneously the sound of Gatling gun fire erupted, along with the sound of the helicopter returning over head. More machine gun fire came from the building rooftops. The Angel Team and the Slayers looked up, seeing parts of the buildings destroyed, and no more huge demons. The smaller ones were cut down with incredible speed.

"CEASE FIRE!!" erupted from the man who was in command.

"That really is droopy," Spike muttered as he watched Buffy and the Slayers get up. The Angel Team followed suit.

"We don't want to frighten the neighbors any more than we have to!!" Xander Harris called out with a grin smile. "Besides, the girls have been itching for a good workout since the plane trip, let's do the clean up the old fashioned way. Go!"

The Slayers simply jumped down from buildings, while Xander quickly found a string of fire escape staircases that weren't destroyed by the explosion and slid down them, rapidly growing a distance between him and the soldiers who ran behind him.

When he got down, he decapitated two demons with one stroke of his katana, and he told the Slayer who turned around a little startled at him saving her life, "Do keep an eye on your backside, Deanna. I hate to lose such a lovely one." The Slayer grinned at him, and motioned him to duck. He did and she threw a knife through where he was a moment before. It embedded itself in a demon's throat that promptly sank down into its death.

"Same goes for yours," she commented as Xander got back up, and she turned around to attack more demons, with her fellow Slayers doing the same around her.

"Slayers," Xander muttered as he impaled a demon through the heart. "They'll be the death of me one of these days."

"Bloody hell," Spike said looking at the spectacle of Slayers killing demons left and right. The others of the Angel team just looked astonished. They stood there watching in shock, the speed of the turn of events keeping them inactive. Spike added, "They're stealing our glory. That just isn't right."

"I see your just as whiny as ever, Spike," Buffy's voice sounded and they turned around to look at her. Buffy smiled, and then suddenly her right arm shot out, and impaled Spike through his heart with her sword. Spike looked astonished and in pain at it, and the grimace on Buffy's face, as her fellow Slayers took down several demons trying to flee past them.

"What? Why?" Spike whispered in shock.

Buffy moved forward, slicing the sword clean through, and looked him directly in the eye. "Away from your manipulations, the First's manipulations, and the Hellmouth's influence, you'd be surprised how quickly clarity returned to me, you sick son of a bitch. Me and my friends sat talking in London one day, about what happened. Tell me, Spike, exactly _/how/_ did you know I was _/right/_ about the _/vineyard/_ when you and they never got to talk about it, because you attacked them almost right away?" Viciously Buffy twisted the sword around, causing blood to ooze from Spike's mouth. She grinned evilly at him, leaving remainder of the Angel Team stunned. Buffy continued, "And exactly who took out the knife we kept carefully hidden, the only knife capable of reopening the hellmouth and letting those Turok-Han out that attacked Faith and her group underground?" Buffy pulled the sword out, and then rammed it into his stomach, hissing out in anger, "And what really made it all clear, tell me how you can be surprised you have soul, unless with or without soul, you're just as purely evil, with _/no/_ differences in your personality _/atall/_, hmm?" Spike just coughed up blood. "And about the soul? Hitler had one too," Buffy told him, and pulled the sword out. Then with one clean swipe she chopped off his head, and watched with satisfaction as he turned to dust. "_/That/_ felt _/so/_ good."

Beyond the even more stunned group, the battle came to an end, with no casualties on the Slayers' side, and the demons all dead. The tank had driven away by now, and in its place came an ambulance rapidly backing up into the alley. "Gunn is it?" Kennedy asked gently, smiling. She had been part of the group of Slayers with Buffy.

"Uh, yeah," Gunn asked weakly as he saw the doors of the ambulance open. A stretcher was wheeled out by two ambulance personnel.

"I think they can patch you up," she added as she guided the black man to his salvation. A few moments later the ambulance sped off, even as a new one arrived for others who got injured. A few of those newly injured Slayers and soldiers came to the ambulance, but till now, none of them were so badly injured they needed to be sped off.

Angel looked stunned at the whole scene, Xander arrived near him, his katana slung over his shoulder. "I'm still cleaning up your messes, I see, Angel," he said with a wide grin. Angel narrowed his eyes at the 'boy', and gave a growl.

"Uh, uh," Buffy warned. Apparently dusting Spike hadn't lightened her mood that much. Angel was startled again, looking over at Buffy. Buffy finished, at Xander this time, "Great going, Xan, I think that was one of the best battle plans, and perfectly executed."

"What the . . .?" Angel muttered in shock, he had thought this was Buffy's idea.

"Yeah," Buffy added, almost evilly. "When we found out in our little talk about Spike, we figured out a lot more. The FE played me like a violin, and then Xander kind of exploded."

"In a very good way," a Slayer announced, and wrapped her arm around Xander's waist. She was covered in demon gore and blood, was grinning widely, and hugged Xander close. Buffy smiled.

Angel's jaw dropped, saying, "Faith? You and him?"

"Yeah, well," Faith said, wondering for a moment how to explain this. "I flirted with a guy in a bar, next minute I now my boyfriend at the time goes psycho on me. Slayers are demon whores this. Slayers just fuck demons and kill humans that. I'm going to cleanse you now, thus. The dude told me he'd surprise me, well, he succeeded in that. I got my ass saved by a group of Slayers, and Xander sent them."

"Not really my doing," Xander said with a grin. "I had to do this ancient shaman ritual in order to gain the trust of this tribe that had a Slayer activated within them. I had a vision. Thank god for cell phones, and Giles believing I hadn't lost my mind."

"You could say I was, and am, _/very/_ grateful, and intrigued why Xander would have a vision that saved little old me," Faith actually purred now, "I wanted to just calm down, be with some friends, talk with people _/not/_ insanely obsessed with Slayers, or just plain insane for that matter. Got my ass past customs with a glamor Giles sent along, and the next minute I know I'm not just with friends, but in Xander's bed. I never left."

"Uh," Angel muttered, shaking his head, not really wanting to know why Xander's grin widened so the moment Faith started purring. He turned back to Buffy, trying to shake several disturbing mental images, and he said nervously, "how's your new boyfriend?"

Buffy frowned in confusion, and asked, "What are you talking about?"

"The Immortal?"

Buffy asked him in mounting bad mood, "What makes you think, that after you and Spike I could possibly want anyone who's not human? Not to mention evil and a criminal? I was undercover, since the 'great Immortal' wouldn't settle for anyone less than Buffy Summers herself, and the only way to figure out his immortality was to have access to his bedroom. The moment I knew how to kill him once and for all, about a week ago, I sliced and diced his ass in a thousand little pieces . . ." Buffy frowned in confusion again, and added, "How the hell do you know about him, anyway? And why would you think I had anything going with him?"

"Not human?" Angel asked perturbed.

"I'm not baked yet, but I'm baked enough to know you'll have an almost unlimitedly long way to convince me as a human, but you don't stand a chance as a vampire," Buffy told him in no uncertain terms, her arms folded across her ample chest, making it very clear she was not messing around. Apart from Angel everyone around looked strangely at Buffy.

"And I signed away the prophecy that would allow me to be human," Angel muttered.

"Huh?" came from everyone around him.

Xander made the question understandable, "How does that work exactly, signing away a prophecy? Once you sign, Wolfram & Hart send a few assassins through time to kill the dude doing the prophesying? Or force him to change the written text at gunpoint? And exactly how does that change whatever the hell he saw _/before/_ he started writing it down?"

Angel blinked. "Hello!" Buffy interrupted. "Not having an answer yet!" Angel looked at her. "_/How/_ did you know?"

"A couple of weeks ago Spike and I went to look you up, at your apartment, Andrew told us. He also said you still cared for the both of us," Angel replied, looking down at the pile of dust that had been Spike, and realizing he was kind of glad. Illyria was uncharacteristically nervous, the Slayers - she knew what they were via Fred's memories and the vampires' stories - almost all kept their eyes trained on her, the eyes of predators. And seeing just how quick they eliminated an entire army of demons and several giant ones, it got to her.

"ANDREW!!?" Buffy screamed out with such anger Angel flinched back. "Caring for Spike!? In my apartment!? DAWN!!"

"I'm not deaf, Buffy," Dawn's voice sounded and she emerged from the crowd of slayers. She was covered in demon blood and gore.

"Did you let Andrew in our apartment a few weeks ago?" Buffy asked her.

"Why would I wanna do that?" Dawn asked her older sister annoyed. "Besides I was on a well-earned vacation then, remember?"

Buffy's face didn't look happy to begin with, but the way it now twisted even further into anger, made her look down right evil. "That lying, cheating, magic abusing, son of a bitch," Buffy hissed out.

"Calm, down, Buff. He's not worth getting an ulcer over," Xander said, which seemed to lighten Buffy momentarily. Two bikes arrived. One bike was a sleek modern one, the other an equally modern but built in the style of the old touring bikes - think Harley Davidson. The rider of the sleek bike was female, wrapped in skintight, black, leather, protective bike suit, accentuating her curves nicely. The other rider was male, and he was dressed more normal, brown clothes, but he looked very good in it anyway. Both riders had a passenger, a male one behind the female, and a blonde female behind the male. The helmets obscured all their identities.

The passengers got off, and then the riders did the same. Buffy turned to the male one, saying, "Giles, that rule about not killing humans? I don't care, this is an exception. I'm gonna kill him, and I'm not exaggerating, or joking."

"Kill who?" Giles asked as he took off his helmet, as Kennedy walked over to the female rider.

"Andrew!" Buffy shrieked out. "When I get my hands on him, I'll tear him limb from limb."

"I'll slit his throat," Dawn added.

Which made Giles smile and say, "I'll hold him down for you."

"But, you sent Andrew to retrieve the insane Slayer," Angel wondered, getting more confused by the moment.

"No," Giles answered bitterly. "The little wanker managed to get his hands on a message from one of our operatives here first, and decided to go all alone without telling us in order to 'prove himself'. When you called me, I hastily redirected a Slayer team in the vicinity. The leader decided to make Andrew play nice and give the appearance of a united front, I still wish she had just killed him and be done with it. We threw him out afterward."

"Could you get off my case on that, Giles," a Slayer commented, and Angel looked over, recognizing one of the Slayers who'd been with Andrew then. "My backside is still sore from all the spankings." Giles blushed, and Angel looked over, unable to tell whether the Slayer was just messing him with, or whether Giles really spanked her on a regular basis. The fact that the rest was calmly aloof about the comment didn't give any indication to either scenario. Again Angel wished his traitorous mind didn't come up with several erotic, but horrible visions.

"Now that Andrew's death warrant is signed, how did things go on your end, Willow," Xander asked with command in his voice. The female rider removed her helmet revealing long red hair shining in the light of a street light.

"Perfect, have I ever failed to fulfill my part of a plan?" Willow asked with a wide grin, much to Angel's mounting astonishment.

"I captured you once," Faith commented. Willow and Kennedy glared at her, and she said, "What? I'm just saying."

"Still fulfilled my end then, _/and/_ brought home part of the key to destroy the mayor," she told the dark-haired Slayer, then smiled at her.

Angel hadn't really been able to keep his eyes off the bike riding Willow, and asked, "Since when do you ride bikes?"

Willow smiled, and looked at Kennedy, "You win the greatest victory against evil, with plenty of Slayers, and field watchers who had gone in hiding coming out of the woodwork, you've got plenty of time to spend with your girlfriend teaching each other things." Willow kissed Kennedy on the cheek, and then turned darkly, "Until you figure out you've made the biggest mistake ever, and spend months and months battling through dimensions, gods, minions of the First, to finally banish him from this realm for several centuries at least, re-energize the Slayer line, and transform it from a demonic spirit to natural predator spirits with a little help from Gaia, and gaining a new balance and control from her."

Angel swallowed a little at the cold look Willow had, but he couldn't stop asking more questions. Unseen by Angel, Buffy fidgeted a little. "But how did you know about tonight?" Angel wondered, not getting how the speed with the latest events could possibly have made them ready to fight here and now.

"Simple, Dead Boy," Xander told him. "We had an agent planted inside your organization, in every Wolfram & Hart branch actually."

"Yes," came a very familiar voice, as Willow's passenger removed his helmet.

"Wesley," Illyria said in shock.

Wesley grinned and continued, "That's long before I started wondering who managed to cloud my mind into hiring a soulless killing machine as your assistant. And once I got my memories back, they had two."

"Harmony?" Angel asked in surprise.

"Yeah," her annoying voice sounded, and she removed her own helmet. "I told you if you had confidence in me I could have a soul." Angel's jaw dropped.

Xander grinned, and gauging Angel's reaction, he said, "I don't trust no soulless vampires, and I figured, one vampire with a soul, two vampires with a soul, three vampires with a soul . . . two vampires with a soul - what does it matter, eh? Of course I made sure Willow made the soul permanent, I didn't think Harmony was smart enough to understand the concept of guilt, or one moment of pure happiness. I chose _/her/_ for the job, because I knew you would _/never/_ _/once/_ consider Harmony to be able to be a spy, and I remember that although still stupid, souled Harmony was still a hell of a lot smarter than the soulless demonic corpse version."

"Hey . . ." Harmony tried to defend herself.

"Harmony," Giles interrupted, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "If you don't shut up, you'll get to join Spike wherever the hell souled vampires go after they're dust." Harmony took a step back, giving the watcher an apologetic smile, apparently taking the trip with her on the back of the bike had taken its tole on the watcher.

"Permanent soul?" Angel asked with hope.

"No." Buffy was the one who stated the answer with such a tone, it was made clear it was final. She went on, "I don't think you quite get the concept of the curse, Angel, so you still have to learn. When Harmony reported about your little escapades, you have no idea about our reactions and all the possible ways we could have handled it - most of them: not pleasant. I think it's really great you can fuck women you don't love, but just one damn slip up during a climax and you would unleash a vampire of unspeakable evil upon this world. Why do you think none of us trust you, and why I hate your guts right now?"

Angel looked down at the floor, guilt raging through his body. Willow finished the explanation then, "Eventually it was decided I prepare Harmony so I could possess her instantaneously - with her permission, not evil anymore here - and be able to kill Angelus through her if and when he would rear his ugly head."

Angel looked at a smiling Xander, feeling rather horrible, but when he recognized the katana, that was replaced with wonder. "That's the sword Cordelia used . . ." he muttered dumbfounded.

"Yeah, I thought I'd keep it," Xander said, grinning evilly. "Not many of these around you know, and the real ones expensive as hell." Angel just looked dumbly at him. "Lovely illusion wasn't it? I knew if I just showed off enough fake cleavage you wouldn't notice it was me acting. I really had to keep you from wondering why her body disappeared from the hospital, you know? Not to mention stopping that bastard Lindsey - it was personal you see, he managed to slip by me when got himself the magic glyphs, I had a score to settle. Of course all the hugging of you, really was the must disgusting thing I ever did to finish a mission." Angel looked at him with hurt eyes.

Buffy gave a snort, folded her arms across her chest again, and said, "Come back to me when you need to get into a demon's bedroom in order to figure out how to kill it." Xander inclined his head in acknowledgment of Buffy's greater sacrifice.

"Cordy?" Angel asked hopefully.

Xander told him with a serious face, "We're almost done exorcizing every last piece of demonic stuff from her, she's making the exorcists lives hell though, they've asked if they could exorcize Cordy as well." Angel grinned, that sounded exactly like Cordelia. Xander continued suspiciously, "And I'm not telling where she is, I don't trust you with her, in fact, I don't trust you with anyone."

"You did all of this?" Angel asked him dumbfounded, a half smile thinking of Cordelia still on his face.

"A lot of it," he said grinning, again, "but then I'm the one who sees, of course the preacher was a little premature." Xander looked at Willow and Kennedy intently, as he pointed at his blue eye, and said, "Zoom, 3D map recording, infra-red vision, computerized rendering into the visual spectrum, the works."

"Xander," Kennedy warned as he saw him looking at her and Willow. "If you don't turn off the X-ray vision, and stop looking at me and Willow without our clothes on, I'm gonna pull a Caleb - Riley and his scientists can install a new cybernetic eye then, and you can get a proper brown one, while I'll make sure it will _/not/_ have X-ray vision."

Faith laughed in Xander's embrace, as he said, "Hey, I thought the different color would look mysterious."

To which Faith said, "No, but I like it anyway." Xander gestured to Faith gratefully, then he straightened up and looked to his right at another Slayer. The exotic looking Slayer had always been playful, Xander knew, and she grinned at him and swayed her hips seductively. Willow in the mean time, told Kennedy, "He did save you from those Bringers, Ken, I think he deserves a peak. Besides he was just joking, you know Xander by now."

"No fair, you're not wearing any clothes," Xander said, pointing accusatorial at Illyria. Slayers, Buffy included - which brought a smile to Angel - laughed and giggled out loud, mostly at Willow's expense. "Ow!" Xander called out as Faith punched him in the arm, and looked at him warningly. Illyria just looked down at herself in confusion.

"You were saying?" Kennedy asked Willow.

"You were joking, right, Xan?" Willow asked with an insecure pout that made her look like the insecure geek of old.

"Nobody will ever know," Xander said with a wide grin. "That's the cool part." Which stopped the giggling cold.

"Xander," Faith warned him. "If I ever find out you're looking at girls naked behind my back, I will hurt you."

"I love you too, Faith, and I'll let you share, promise," Xander grinned at her, which caused her to glare even more fiercely. He grinned a moment longer, making Faith break into a smile, and shaking her head. Then he went all serious. "Which reminds me," he said, and fished a cell phone from a pocket. He pushed a speed dial, and said into it, "We're ready." A moment later a black car backed up into the alley, and Xander prompted, "Willow."

Angel looked left and right, as several Slayers held him tightly suddenly. "Relax, Angel," Buffy told him, "we don't have time to explain, and you should keep out of this, this'll be very delicate."

Willow grinned, stepping away from Kennedy, and her hair whipped up with energy, while her eyes turned black. Her gaze was trained directly onto Illyria, and the fallen god took a step back in surprise. "This is something I couldn't do from another dimension, even using someone else as a conduit," Willow said, stretching out her hands. Illyria was yanked off her feet, and landed a moment later in between Willow's outstretched hands. Willow's fingers glowed and she plunged them into either side of Illyria's head. The fallen god grabbed Willow's arms, growling, ready to yank them off of the witch's body, but she slumped down before she got the chance. "It's far too delicate a procedure, too great a potential for brain damage," Willow said, droning gently, the very words seeming to put her into a trance, "so I used Harmony after I realized what was happening and locked Fred's soul away in a tiny little box inside her own body." Willow went rigid, and then a blue energy started at Fred's feet, and slowly moved up, growing bigger, and stripping away the leather clothes Illyria had generated. Finally Fred was naked, and only her head was surrounded in blue energy. Willow pulled her fingers out, holding a blue orb of energy in her hands. Fred collapsed, but Wesley had anticipated it, and grabbed her before she fell to the hard floor. Ambulance personnel arrived, and slung a blanket around Fred with Wesley's help. The girl slowly moaned, looking around in confusion, as she was led away to an ambulance. Wesley went along with her.

Willow turned around, and the back of the black car opened. A man wheeled out a stretcher, on which lay a black-haired female corpse. "She died a couple of hours ago in a car accident, she signed her body over for scientific study," a soldier explained, but Angel hardly noticed. He was too busy looking at the spectacle with wide eyes.

Willow let the blue energy flow into the corpse, and explained, "Since Illyria seems to have the possibility to be good, and it's her insane follower that targeted Fred, not Illyria herself, we think giving her a chance is fair." The corpse's hair turned blue, as well as the eyes, and Illyria sat up, and formed herself a new leather-like outfit. Illyria looked at the black-eyed witch, and Willow warned, "But one chance only, screw up, and it will be a lot easier to destroy you than to transmigrate you, understand?"

"I understand," the newly reawakened fallen god said with newfound respect for the Human species.

"We've evolved since you ruled this planet," Willow told blue-haired woman still with a warning tone.

"Xander," the man who had explained the corpse's origin said, while the Slayers let Angel go.

Xander turned to the soldier, and said, "Yes, Riley."

"It's all clean, we've hunted down the few who managed to slip past, or underground through the sewers," Riley gave his report with a grin. "Last count, 1292 hostile casualties, none friendly, apart from bruises and cuts. Only one seriously wounded. Gunn is not out of the woods yet, but they say the surgery is going good so far - he's got some internal injuries. For a minute there I was worried when I saw the size of the thing, but . . . absolutely fantastic, man."

Angel looked at the blonde man, somewhat with irritation. Spike had been right, they _/had/_ stolen their glory - their glorious death he amended to himself. Giles explained, "The Watcher Council has gone as official as possible as well as international. We've got ties with _/every/_ anti-demon military unit in the world, to the point they are practically council controlled."

As Kennedy rejoined Willow, and supported the tired witch, Buffy said, "I propose those who know him go check up on Gunn."

"Motion passed," Giles said, motioned for Angel to join Fred, and Wesley. Illyria and Harmony - the latter got several suspicious glares, but she was oblivious to them - joined them as well, and they got into the ambulance where a shivering Fred was being dried and dressed. The rain stopped slowly then, and the clouds parted revealing a beautiful moon, ready to set for another day.

_The End_


End file.
